作为一个Python菜鸟,之前一直懵懂于urllib和urllib2,以为2是1的升级版。今天看到老外写的一篇《Python: difference between urllib and urllib2》才明白其中的区别。
You might be intrigued by the existence of two separate URL modules in Python -urllib and urllib2. Even more intriguing: they are not alternatives for each other. So what is the difference between urllib and urllib2, and do we need them both?
urllib and urllib2are both Python modules that do URL request related stuff but offer different functionalities. Their two most significant differences are listed below:
urllib 和urllib2都是接受URL请求的相关模块,但是提供了不同的功能。两个最显著的不同如下:
urllib2 can accept a Request object to set the headers for a URL request,urllib accepts only a URL. That means, you cannot masquerade your User Agent string etc.
urllib provides the urlencode method which is used for the generation of GET query strings, urllib2 doesn't have such a function. This is one of the reasons why urllib is often used along with urllib2.